First of all, I can’t believe how many of you were interested in the original blog posting about how many grape varieties there are in Portugal. Secondly, the re-tweeting of this one was immense. I’m totally surprised by the interest beyond my own. (Thanks!)

Now, Part 2…

The bottom line is that I’m now adding 232 more varieties to my existing list…

Right now, I may have collected the most extensive list in the world. It will become a blog that I post after this one, called Portuguese Cultivars, The Quintessential List (Part 3). It’ll be launched this weekend, because I don’t want to fill my Monday through Friday time with another Portuguese wine list. This list deserves to be recorded separately, however, to be the stand alone list; so, it’s set for this coming Saturday.

It’s hard to believe that this many more cultivars could be found in one fell swoop, but it’s happened.

This list is in addition to what was in my original blog post… NOT more being ADDED to my original list!

I have to thank my friend Luís Ribeiro of Enoforum Wines, my original source for inspiration. Being Luis’ colleague, and asking for help from anyone who might be in the know, Luís suggested that I visit these two sites from the Instituto da Vinha e do Vinho, I.P.:

My first reaction was, “Oh my God.” I thought I had created quite the list… At least the longest I had seen so far in all of my reading. Then I wondered, “Is this the quintessential list, and what I did has already been done?”

Upon examination, however, I knew that I had hit pay dirt thanks to Luís, and I would now be able to expand my list to be even more comprehensive. It would also move me closer to the goal of seeing how many Portuguese grape varieties there actually are.

I was reminded by Paul Gregutt that many Mediterranean grape varieties are synonyms, and I’m working diligently to try to only list one cultivar once, putting any synonyms that I find into parenthesis.

I also appreciated seeing that the Instituto broke up their list with letters of the alphabet. This makes a lot of sense to me, and so I’ll now also be breaking up my list.

REMINDER: The lists below only have new additions.

Original white (78) + new white (103) = Total white to date (181)

Original red (92) + new red (129) = Total red to date (221)

Cultivars that will be recorded on Wine-blog under Portuguese Cultivars, The Quintessential List = 402

I bet many of these varieties could make fantastic dry table wines in California, with our hot climate that resembles Portugal’s. Problem is, the marketing and distribution people could never sell them. So we’ll probably never know.

What a great trip to Portugal for a story it would be, “On the quest to taste them all.” Even there, you’d need to bring a geneticist with you to actually find a fraction of the obscure ones.

It’s still so remarkable.

Someone on Twitter wrote, “Not necessarily a good thing…” I’m still trying to think about what’s wrong with a plentiful diversity like this. No one’s trying to market them all, as it’s not possible. I think this is one case where quantity has nothing to do with quality, as no-one’s trying to capture that market… they’re just let the grapes grow sweet.

There are actualy over 600 native grape varietals in portugal which are used to make wine. Many of these grow in such small regions that production is limited. However, there are many available in the u.s. I am drinking a glass of 100 % baga right now, which is not on your list of reds.